


Plot Twist

by Averagefangirl93



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bisexual Harry Potter, Friends to Lovers, Gay Draco Malfoy, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Oblivious Harry, Quidditch, based on a reddit post, boys being dumb, some mention of homophobia, some mention of racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 13:12:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18550462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Averagefangirl93/pseuds/Averagefangirl93
Summary: Plot twist: it turns out Harry didn’t have any problem with Malfoy kissing guys if it’s him he’s kissing.





	Plot Twist

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on [this true reddit story](https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/straight-guy-worries-hes-homophobic-gay-roommate-ends-falling-love/#gs.5f8jch) which is one of my favourite things on the internet and I immediately saw oblivious Harry and Draco as roommates when I read it. 
> 
> Italics is the original post and I tried to mess with it as little as possible whist making it work for these characters. 
> 
> If anyone else has done this before, I would LOVE to read others, please send me links in the comments.

 

Harry closed the curtains around his bed and put up privacy charms before he opened the package. An owl-order copy of Witch Weekly wasn’t exactly contraband, but knowing the contents of the magazine had him sneaking around like he was smuggling in the latest Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. Opening the glossy magazine with its moving image of - surprise - himself on the front page, Harry flipped straight to the back and the ‘Ask Glinda’ section ('Good Advice from the Good Witch' - muggle stories and traditions had become fashionable since the war). Witches and wizards could send in their life problems to the agony witch and members of the public could give their advice by writing in the empty spaces of the charmed page.

 

Harry had recently submitted his own little problem to the magazine and had been given the heads up that it would be featured in this week’s edition. Heart pounding in his chest, he reread the words that he had spent hours and multiple sheets of crumpled parchment perfecting, whilst the memories they conjured flowed through his mind like a pensieve vision. 

 

_ First things first, let me say that I’ve never thought of myself as being discriminatory before. I have gay friends in school and we’ve made it through some tough times together, I never felt weird about them dating. So all of this is coming out of nowhere. _

 

_ ”Malcolm” has been my dormmate for  6 months, and I pretty much knew upfront about him being gay as he came out at the start of term. At some point we became friendly enough with each other that we could even joke about it, as in, sometimes he’ll pretend to flirt with me and I’ll pretend to flirt back. I’m straight and he knows that, but I don’t feel threatened by him flirting with me and he says most straight guys do. _

 

“Nice arse, Potter” Malfoy shouts as he shoots up from behind him on the quidditch field. Harry laughs and rolls his eyes, sitting back on his broom from his half standing position scouting for the snitch,  

 

“You’ll have to try harder than that if you want to put me off my game, Malfoy” Harry retorts. Eighth years aren’t technically allowed to play on the house teams anymore so a group of ex-players from across the houses had decided to hold recreational games once a week to keep them all in shape.

 

“If only we’d known the banter between you two all these years was flirting, it would have saved a lot of fights on this field” shouted a smirking Seamus, flying directly between the two Seekers still smiling at each other. 

 

“He wishes” responded Malfoy with a wink before dropping into a dive, obviously having spotted the snitch. Harry’s body takes over and he naturally follows Malfoy into the dive. Whist winning the game is forefront in his mind, he can’t help the smile that stays on his face, thinking about how although their flirting obviously isn’t serious - Harry being straight and all - it is nice that their barbs don’t have the sting that they used to. 

 

_ The problems started because of this: Malcolm brings guys, normally the same guy, back to our room sometimes. At the start I thought I was okay with it, since it’s really not my business who he fools around with. He’s usually discreet enough with privacy charms that I don’t see/hear anything I wouldn’t want to see/hear from anyone else, but for some reason I’ve started feeling weird if I even see him with other guys. _

 

_ I don’t know when it started but one time that really sticks out to me is when I came back and saw him and this bloke making out on his bed. I don’t know how to describe what it was like to see that, except that for a moment I felt so bad I thought I was going to throw up. Malcolm was embarrassed (he didn’t think I’d be back for a while), but I told him it was okay since I was embarrassed too. _

 

Blood pounding in his ears, hand gripping his wand, Harry hadn’t felt this kind of fight or flight instinct since the war. Blaise awkwardly stood up, adjusting his robes and shuffled round Harry,

 

“Potter” he nodded, “catch ya later, Draco” he threw over his shoulder with a wink on the way out the door. Harry didn’t say anything to him, he was still breathing deeply trying to calm down and work out why he felt like he might throw up. A blush had risen on Malfoy’s cheek where he still lay half sprawled on his bed, propped up against the wall. 

 

“Sorry Potter, thought you were studying with Granger tonight.” Malfoy said, with an apologetic twist to his mouth, but a sparkle of mischief still in his eye. 

 

Harry took another deep breath and tried to shake off the weird feeling , “erm, yeah, I was. There’s only so much arithmancy you can take in one night though, you know?” he attempted to joke with an awkward little laugh and a shrug. “I thought you were studying tonight too?” he asked, hoping it came out impassive and less judgemental than it sounded in his head.

 

Now it was Malfoy’s turn to do an awkward laugh, “Ha, yeah, erm, we were studying but Blaise and I got a little distracted and fell back into an old habit. He was the first person I came out to, you know? We used to fool around a little before...well, before..” he trailed off. 

 

That feeling of disgust flared again in Harry’s stomach and he was so embarrassed by his reaction he could only hope it didn’t show on his face. “Right, well, sorry for interrupting I guess. I’m, erm, gonna go take a shower before bed.” More like hide my apparent homophobia under the shower spray, he thought to himself. 

 

_ I felt bad for being as disgusted as I was, since there’s NO good reason for me to have a reaction like that. I thought maybe they just caught me by surprise and that’s why I reacted so strongly, but it turned out it wasn’t a one-time thing. After that, every time he has this guy over (not that often, but every once in a while) or I see him with others around the grounds or village, I just start feeling like shit and wishing the guy would leave, and I can’t stop thinking about what these blokes might have done to him even though I don’t want to imagine that. It makes me really uncomfortable and grossed out. And these are just lads he fools around with, I don’t know what I’d do if he ends up getting an actual boyfriend. _

 

_ Malcolm has started to notice and it’s affecting our friendship. The other day I came back right when that guy was about to leave, and the guy tried to be polite to me but I ended up being rude to him (don’t remember what I said, but it was really obvious I was pissed). When the bloke left, Malcolm asked me why I was being an arsehole. I didn’t know what to say, but then he asked if I had a problem with him sleeping with men. I said no. For some reason that pissed him off more and he said I can’t complain since I used to be in a public relationship and he was forced to see me being affectionate with her sometimes. (I was in a relationship with a girl just before me and Malcolm got roomed together, but I broke it off after a few months and I haven’t done anything with anyone since.) I agreed with him and told him I was just having a bad day and I don’t care who he sleeps with, but he looked more upset and told me he’s going to a friend’s room to cool off. I said okay. When he was leaving for some reason he casually said, “and you’ll be okay if I sleep with him as long as I do it in his room and not ours, right?” Or something like that. I told him it’s none of my business what he does at someone else’s place, but when he said that I felt sick to my stomach and couldn’t stop thinking about it. _

 

_ He didn’t show up later that night even though he was supposed to hang out with me and our friends. He’s never blown me off before and it made me feel like shit, but part of it was my fault since I made him feel like I was judging him for sleeping with guys. Now he’s acting like nothing happened but I’m worried I might mess things up if it happens again. I want to keep him as a friend, but he’d be hurt if he knew that whenever I think about him with other guys it disgusts me. _

 

Seeing Malfoy in the Great Hall at breakfast the next day was tough. He looked tired and as much as Harry knew it was probably for the same reason Harry himself looked tired in the mirror that morning - sleeping badly after their fight - he couldn’t help the small voice in his head that wondered if it was Malfoy’s ‘friend’ that had kept him up instead. The bubble of disgust built up again at the thought so he tried to shake it off before he made his way to the eighth year table. 

 

“Morning mate, you look like shit” greeted Ron, but he still poured Harry a cup of tea as he said it so Harry forgave him. 

 

“Thanks, mate” Harry responded with a eye roll, but took the tea so Ron knew he wasn’t really mad. Harry snuck a glance at Malfoy and Blaise a few seats along and scowled at how Blaise was leaning close, talking to Malfoy in hushed tones. 

 

“Trouble in paradise?” Ron asked with a smirk. 

 

“What?!” Harry quickly turned back to his best mate and pretended he had no idea what he was talking about. 

 

“You and Malfoy” Ron went on, oblivious to what Ron’s suggestion was doing to the ball of feeling in Harry’s stomach, “I know I was skeptical about McGonagall pairing you two as roommates and Malfoy’s weird personality transplant but I’ve gotta admit, I’ve grown fond of the git. Lately you’ve been joined at the hip not giving each other dirty looks down the table. So, trouble in paradise?” he finished with a raised eyebrow.

 

How could harry explain that he’d recently caught a nasty case of bigotry and it was threatening to tear apart his new and, he was realising, very important to him, friendship with his old nemesis?

 

_ How do I deal with this? I’ve never been homophobic but I’ve suddenly developed some kind of homophobia where just the idea of my roommate’s sex life makes me uncomfortable. And I don’t react like this to other gay people either, it’s just Malcolm. I don’t know if this means I’m only okay with gay people as long as I’m not living with them or what. Does anyone else have experience with this? I want to get over myself and stop whatever this is, but if I can’t I’m going to have to leave since the last thing I want to do is hurt Malcolm, and if I stay here and keep automatically judging him for his lifestyle that’s what’s going to happen. _

 

_ tl;dr: Roommate is gay, I am not but I thought I was okay with him being gay until I realised I feel crappy when I see him with other guys and it’s started to affect our friendship. How to deal with this/stop being such a dick? _

 

Harry got to the summary at the end of his letter and released the breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding. There, it was out there now and hopefully soon people would start writing in with their advice. He really did mean it when he said he didn’t want to hurt Malfoy - or ‘Malcolm’, he chuckled to himself at the first name that had come to mind when trying to hide their identities. He couldn’t go to his friends for advice as he didn’t want them to judge him for his sudden homophobia, so writing into ‘Ask Glinda’ had been his last resort. If no one could help him he would have to request a room transfer as he mentioned in the letter, for his own sake as much as Malfoys.

 

\---

 

Harry woke up the next morning and grabbed his Witch Weekly out from under the pillow, eager to see if anyone had left him any advice on the charmed page. Harry sighed, only one comment had been left on the page and it was a pointless one;

 

_ “Are you sure that weird feeling isn’t jealousy…? i mean, this only seems to revolve around Malcolm specifically.” _

 

If he’s honest it is something he’d considered a bit before. I mean, he hadn’t really been with anyone since Ginny. Harry grabbed a quill and ink from his desk and began writing a reply to his mystery advisor - trying not to think about how Tom Riddle’s Diary this all felt. 

 

_ “I thought about that, but I don’t know what I’m meant to be jealous of. He definitely has a more active sex life than I do, but reacting like this to something like that seems really strange and irrational” _

 

Harry was about to put the magazine away and get up to start his day, content to see if any more useful advisers had written in by this evening, when he saw words forming below his reply. Clearly, this witch or wizard had been keeping an eye on his problem page;

 

_ “Yeah i thought maybe you don’t like seeing Malcolm with other people because you want his attention to yourself?” _

 

Harry paused. Was this person really suggesting he wanted all of those things he felt disgusted by, Malfoy touching, kissing, stroking his long fingers through someone's hair, for himself? This time Harry did put the magazine away, well, shoved it back under the pillow, before jumping out of bed, throwing on some clothes and heading for the library. 

 

He needed to talk to Hermione.

 

\--

 

Harry was once again nervously opening a copy of Witch Weekly in bed. Only this time he wasn’t alone. It wasn’t uncommon for people who had written into ‘Ask Glinda’ to send in follow ups on how their problems had panned out and after coming clean to Malfoy about his desperate search for answers, the blonde had insisted Harry write in with a follow up of the events that unfolded. 

 

_ The day I read the responses to my letter, I met up with my best friend, Penelope, and I showed her the page. She read the whole thing and called me an oblivious walnut and said it sounds like I have a crush on Malcolm. The same conclusion some of you came to on the original page. _

 

_ Anyway, she talked me through it and we confirmed I’m not as straight as I thought I was. She also pointed out something in my original post, where I said the more I tried to reassure him I didn’t mind who he slept with, the more he got upset. Also: how he brought my old relationship into it. I just thought he was understandably mad with me for being an arsehole, but Penelope thought it sounded like maybe Malcolm wanted me to be jealous? We moved on from that topic pretty quickly, though, since I couldn’t really handle the implications of that when I’d JUST started to understand that I like this guy. _

 

_ The next few days were mostly me sitting on my arse trying to wrap my head around everything. I was scared of messing up our friendship and losing him, but I was even more scared that I might just let this pass without saying anything and then he gets a boyfriend and I have to see him with another guy…etc. Because if that happened I would probably have to end it anyway, since as we’ve established, I’m not great at dealing with him being with other blokes. _

 

_ Probably could have planned it better, but I told him. Right after a quidditch match, if anyone’s interested, since nothing says romance like being covered in mud and sweat. I told him I’ve been such a dick because I was jealous. I don’t think he got what I was getting at because he just laughed a little and said I didn’t have to be jealous since it wasn’t like I’d have any trouble finding people to sleep with me. No clue how I explained, it’s a blur. Luckily he saw how nervous I was so he knew I was serious. _

 

_ We talked. Long story short: all that flirting was real, but Malcolm didn’t have any hope of it going further because of me being an oblivious “straight” guy. So he’s been trying to get over me. He laughed really hard when I told him about how I mistook my jealousy for homophobia, and he teased me by saying he’d never expected me to be the jealous type. Then again, we both ended up laughing a lot of out of nervousness and awkwardness. I’ve never seen him like that before since he’s usually pretty confident. In the end we agreed to maybe try something out, and we kissed. _

 

Malfoy pulled away slowly, eyes fluttering open, Harry hadn't even been able to close his, too disbelieving that this was even happening to miss a second of it. 

 

“Wow” breathed Malfoy. 

 

“Yeah” agreed Harry. They both chuckled softly at how ridiculous they were being over a barely there kiss. But it wasn’t just a kiss, it was 8 years of mixed emotions finally clicking into place and they both took a second to just recognise that and feel how important this moment was. After a few more kisses, and maybe some light groping on Malfoy's part, the boys both realised they were still disgustingly muddy and in need of a shower before bed. After cleaning off, separately, they got into their own beds, content with their brief kisses for now and not wanting to go too fast. Harry couldn't sleep, and he had a feeling Malfoy wasn't either, but for once he was glad it wasn't his turbulent feelings about Malfoy's sexuality keeping him awake, instead just an overwhelming sense of happiness and excitement for the future.

 

_ Since then we’ve kind of been easing into the whole dating thing, I guess? I know the school is wary about roommate relationships and I get why, but it’s been great so far. We had our first proper date last weekend and it was incredible, though a bit weird since we’ve done that a thousand times already and this time there was a new context. In our room we still do our normal thing, but sometimes we get distracted. Last night I completely abandoned a charms essay because I had to kiss him and we got kind of carried away, haha. We’re taking the whole sex thing slow though since I’ve never done anything with another guy before. _

 

_ I’m a little worried about him telling his family and other friends. My friends are very openminded and have grown to love Malcolm too. But he has some more conservative family members, especially on his on his dad’s side, and I can already imagine them blaming me somehow for turning him gay in the first place. They can also be pretty racist (you can guess what side of the war they were on) and I’m mixed. It’s something to think about in the longterm, I guess. Malcolm has said he doesn’t expect me to come round for family dinner right away, but if we end up calling ourselves a couple then I’m not going to hide from them or anything. _

 

_ So…we’re trying. And I am not a homophobe, and nobody needed therapy. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I was this happy, and I never would have expected this when I made that first post. It’s a good thing some of you picked up on the actual problem and tried to get it through to me despite me being an oblivious walnut, so…thanks, guys. _

 

Malfoy looked up smiling from where his head had been resting against Harry’s shoulder whilst they read.

 

“I still can’t believe you thought you were a homophobe.” Malfoy laughed, “You? The most liberal, loving, broad-minded person I know.” Harry shoved at his face but Malfoy just batted his hand away and continued talking through his grin, “How can anyone be dense enough to not realise they fancy someone? Honestly, Potter, it’s a good job you’re fit.”

 

“You can unfancy people you know, Malfoy.” Harry retorted, but he had to admit he agreed about how dense he’d been so he didn't try to refute it too hard. Malfoy wriggled up from his position and threw a leg over Harry’s to sit on his lap, knocking the magazine to the floor in the process. Taking Harry’s face in his hands, he leaned in to kiss the pout off his lips.

 

“I’m glad you figured it out” Malfoy whispered against his lips, “It was getting more and more difficult every day not to kiss you.” Harry smiled and leaned back in to seal their lips together once more. 

 

Plot twist: it turns out Harry didn’t have any problem with Malfoy kissing guys if it’s him he’s kissing.


End file.
